"Okay, yeah; but..." and Testing Authority

“And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”

(Readings considered: Deuteronomy 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13,  Mark 1:21-28)

We’ve all had a teacher.

We’ve all had the experience of “being taught” by another individual who has (or at least claims to have) access to knowledge that we have at some point needed in our lives – or knowledge that we have built upon as we have progressed in our lives and gained new wisdom and new teachers.

We’ve all had the experience of being students in some way, or have submitted ourselves as an apprentice to some Master of a Craft that we too wish to master.

Therefore, in light of this shared experience, I have a confession to make:

I’m not really the best student.

When someone claims to speak to me from a position “of authority” (as if that word somehow shields whatever they are about to say from any shadow of a doubt), I often feel the instantaneous urge to pipe up and say:

“Okay, yeah…. But…”  (and challenge the teaching to see if it will truly hold)

There is this incessant urge – this need to challenge, to prod, to prove in the search for Truth.

To simply accept something as true because the “authorities” say that it is, has (historically) not generally been the best idea.

In the best case, this is how knowledge stagnates, how cultures and civilizations stop moving forward and eventually collapse in on themselves – going down easy because they know that they finally got it right.

But this is also how misinformation and lies become the Truth of the land.

This is how oppression and terror become the norm for people in their everyday lives.  Because someone else said it was meant to be this way… and then people went along with it.

That’s all it takes; one misleading, but convincing, voice and the consent of the people.

Presto; you've built yourself a new reality.

That is… until someone raises her hand and says:

“Yeah, okay; but….       No.”

Because there is Truth and there is Authority.

True “Authority” comes not from the ambitions of vainglorious men and women who strive to control the reality we all inhabit for their own benefit.

True Authority comes from the One who is the Author of all Reality, of all Life, of all Being.

True Authority comes from the One who orders the Cosmos, not for any benefit to Self, but simply from of an outpouring of Love. The desire to create and raise up those creations into the very heart of the Divine Life that they might be transformed in that Life and brought into an ever fuller realization of who they are as the Beloved of the Most High God.

Beloved, that is where authority rests.

As we read in Deuteronomy this morning, the Word of God has promised, through Moses, to raise up prophets in every generation to speak on behalf of the One who is the Author of All Things.

These prophets are not to speak with their own authority and slap a Divine Label on it for marketing purposes; for such individuals are false prophets and should be condemned.

Rather, a prophet is a human being who has been given something of the very Word of God to share with God’s people – that same Word which produced the Universe and worlds upon worlds upon worlds.

That Word which still sustains everyone and everything, everywhere and at every moment.

It is the linchpin of all reality, the foundation of all things, the very ground of our Being.

It is that Word, which calls us not to a life of subjugation and oppression, but calls us forth from those things as we grow into the life into which God is calling us.

It is that same Word, which took on the flesh and form of humanity, that we might know His Love for us and be capable of truly loving Him in return.

The Word who calls out to each and every one of us and says: “Follow me."

But one of the most curious things about today’s Gospel Lesson is the fact that (for all this hype about the authority of God manifest in Christ)

Jesus doesn’t really say a whole lot.

Rather, we simply read that:

At this early point in Jesus’ ministry

“They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

So we don’t even get the actual words of His teaching in this passage, the focus is completely on his manner of teaching (with authority, and not as the scribes).

This continues with a constant theme present in the Gospel according to Mark; the image of an itinerant Jesus just kind of showing up with there being a subtle air of “Just who does this guy think he is.”

He’s not a scribe; he has no fancy theological degree or scholarly credentials: and yet here he is, teaching with a such an authority that everyone who listens is amazed and astounded.

It’s not quite discernible just where this authority is coming from (yet), but it is certainly there… and everyone knows it.

What’s even more interesting is that Jesus seems content to let the people wonder; to let them grow in their knowledge and understanding of who He really Is rather than revealing everything at once with a metaphorical mic drop.

(For that is how God chooses to be revealed. Incrementally – bit by bit, as we mature in our walk with Christ and come to know the infinite God ever more fully.)

At this point in the story, the Demon-possessed man comes in and ruins the big reveal… in Chapter One of all places.

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

As a spiritual being who once served in the presence of God but turned away, the demon possessing this man knows exactly who Jesus is – and it’s terrified.

The corrupt spirit knows that Jesus of Nazareth is the Holy One of God.

The Messianic Lord, one who is not only a prophet like Moses but surpasses Moses in that He represents the ultimate authority of God made manifest on this earth.

But seeing past the physical, the spirit can also see that Jesus is more than just a man who represents the Word of God…

It can see that Jesus is the Divine Word, that Christ is the Word of God exploding into this world and transforming it to the glory of the One who made it.

It can see that Christ has come to reorder the world and bring all of Creation into the Life of the Most High – and that should terrify every oppressive force that has claimed authority in this present age.

For as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians:

There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

My brothers and sisters, as we gather here to partake in the life of Christ’s Body; as we unite ourselves to the One who is the Word made flesh, we are not only submitting to the Authority of the one who made us, but taking on the rights and the status of the Beloved of the Most High.

We too can rest in that place from which all authority – from which the very authorship of the cosmos flows and to which all things eventually return….

And when the road gets tough (and it will), we may remember the comforting words of the Eternal Word:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Following him won’t always be easy, but it will be good and it will be astounding... 

and it will be amazing.

*(The image provided at the beginning comes from an eleventh century fresco depicting the scene at the synagogue in Capernaum.)